testing 1, 2, 3!

how do we know our products will do what we say they will?

We get a lot of questions about our product development process, how we test our products, and how we validate our claims. Basically, how do we ensure that our products will actually do what we say they will? 

We love getting questions like these because we’re proud to serve a community and customer base that desires transparency and honesty through every part of the product development process. And we're more than happy to offer some insight into what PD looks like at cocokind.

We begin, as you probably could have guessed, with research.

phase 1: ingredient research 

Our development and testing processes are rather extensive, especially for a company of our size. Even before we start developing a new formula, we dive into heavy research of ingredients that will support our goals and concept. We choose ingredients that we believe in, but that also have analytical, clinical, in vivo and/or in vitro data that proves their benefit or benefits.

phase 2: determine “use level”

The studies and documents that prove the efficacy of our ingredients also give us access to the “use level” of each ingredient. This is essentially the percentage range that the supplier recommends using, based on their positive test results, to achieve efficacy without compromise. 

We take this information and choose to formulate our key ingredients at the higher end of that percentage range, in order to maximize their benefit to our customers. For example, the effective range for the sea grape caviar that we use in our essence and serum is 1%-3%, so we use 3%.

phase 3: test, improve, repeat

From there, we’re able to have a high degree of confidence that the product will perform, but we continue to test to prove it. In the process, we end up making several iterations of formulas before approving the best one.

We test our formulas on a variety of people, of different ages, skin types, likes, and dislikes, over a prescribed amount of time, using a prescribed method. 

Using the same test durations and methods allows us to gather consistent feedback, which our PD team then uses to redirect formula development and make something even better in the next round. We repeat this process until we reach something that everyone is proud to call a cocokind product.

We scrutinize every single ingredient for safety and sustainability, using every reliable and scientific source available to us. Oftentimes we’re actually very conservative with what we claim our products will do, compared to the results we’ve had in testing.

phase 4: compliance and approval

After all of that, there’s still one more layer to our claims! We abide by all FDA regulations, and all of our products are compliant with the Whole Foods Premium Body Care requirements - this isn’t exactly another phase, but rather something we consider and ensure during the entire development process.

TL; DR - there is so much that happens behind the scenes to ensure that our products will do what we say they will, and that they’ll be clean, conscious, and accessible for all. We’re so proud of our product development process, but also constantly working to improve it.

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